Elain Brown Culture 05.16.2022 18:May PM EDT

Did You Know That the First US Television Sitcom Aired in 1947 — What is It?

The first US television sitcom was called Mary Kay and Johnny. On Tuesday, November 18, 1947, Mary Kay and Johnny made their debut as a television show on the DuMont Television Network, debuting the first US sitcom.

The actual married couple, Mary Kay Stearns and Johnny Stearns starred in the weekly sitcom that lasted for fifteen minutes and was broadcast on television. The Stearnses were the ones who conceptualized and penned all of the show's scripts.

The First US Television Sitcom

The first US television sitcom was played by real-life couple Mary Kay Stearns and Johnny Stearns. As the golden age of radio ushered in the new introduction of television, sitcoms were created. The first sitcom in the US, at that time, showed a significant change in the entertainment industry as it was the first television series to show a couple sharing a bed, and it was the first television series to show a woman's pregnancy on screen.

These two things might be extremely ordinary today, but they were not yet the norm decades ago. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Pinwright's Progress was the first sitcom ever to air on television. The BBC produced it in the United Kingdom between 1946 and 1947. Character actor James Hayter portrayed J. Pinwright, the world's smallest multiple-store proprietor.

However, the first American sitcom was created by Stearns through DuMont in 1947. The program was presented in real-time, with the majority of the action taking place on a set designed to resemble the New York City apartment shared by the show's namesake protagonists, a newlywed couple.

After airing for a year on DuMont, the show moved to CBS for a half year, where it spent most of that time being broadcast every weeknight. Following that, it ran for a further year on NBC every Saturday night, and the network aired the series' final episode on March 11, 1950.

In 1948, Mary Kay actually experienced pregnancy for the first time. After attempting to conceal her pregnancy was unsuccessful, the show's producers decided to include it in the plot of her pregnancy.

On December 31, 1948, their baby, Christopher Stearns, who was only a little over a month old at the time, made his first appearance on the show and became a character.

What is a Sitcom?

The word "sitcom" is from the shortened word "situation comedy," and its roots can be traced back to the early days of radio.

Despite the fact that the first sitcom was broadcast on television in 1946, Merriam-Webster places the year 1962 as the year in which the term was first used. Stacker says that sitcoms usually focus on the funny parts of their plots. This is because they have a stable group of characters and situations that build on or continue from one episode to the next in a funny way.

Today's sitcoms have changed a lot because of how comedy styles have changed, how audience tastes have changed, and how technology has changed.

They have the potential to be a reflection of what is going on in the world as well as a one-of-a-kind parallel to the most significant events and movements that have occurred throughout history.

Mary Kay and Johnny Sitcom

For the longest time, the Mary Kay and Johnny sitcom has always been done through a live broadcast. However, in early 1948, things started to change, and the show was now made available on the West Coast. The show started being recorded on a kinescope to be seen in the West despite the delays.

This is how the entire series was recorded, beginning in that year and continuing until 1950. Even as late as 1975, many episodes were preserved in their entirety.

Despite the historical significance of the first US television sitcom, most episodes were no longer available.

As reported by the Television Academy Foundation, although a small number of clips from the show's final episodes have been preserved, the majority of which are on 16-mm film. These clips are not available for purchase, but TV Land did use one of them in an episode of Inside TV Land titled "Taboo TV."

In addition to that, one episode from 1949 can be found in the collection at the Paley Center for Media.